The ten-digit North American Numbering Plan (NANP) currently used by the United States and 19 other countries is rapidly being depleted. Management of this resource is impaired by a lack of uniform data. Under the Communications Act of 1934, as amended by the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was given “exclusive jurisdiction over those portions of the North American Numbering Plan that pertain to the United States.” Pursuant to that authority, the FCC conducted a rulemaking that, among other things, addressed regular reporting on numbering resources used by United States telecommunications carriers.
The FCC appointed an agency, known as the North American Numbering Plan Administrator (NANPA), to monitor numbering resources utilized by all telecommunications carriers using the resources and to project the dates of area code and North American Numbering Plan exhaust. In their duties, NANPA created a numbering utilization report that telecommunications carriers are to submit semi-annually. The report is known as the Numbering Resource Utilization/Forecast (NRUF) Report.
The NRUF Report includes a number of different forms that provide NANPA with information as to the usage of telecommunications allotted phone numbers. As understood in the telecommunications industry, each telecommunications carrier is allotted a certain number of phone numbers in blocks of 10,000, which is generally subdivided into ten blocks of a thousand. Ten-digit phone numbers include a (i) numbering plan area (NPA) (i.e., area code), which is three digits, (ii) central office code (NXX), which is also three digits, and (iii) thousands digit block (i.e., the first digit of the last four digits of a phone number). Telecommunications carriers provide phone numbers to customers from these blocks of a thousand numbers. As a thousands block is filled, it is considered to be exhausted. Some thousands digit blocks become filled while others become empty depending on how the telecommunications carrier customer base changes. The telecommunications carrier reports the existing usage and forecasts future usage of the phone numbers in the NRUF Report.
One problem that exists with the NRUF Report is the time necessary to collect and process the information to report. Telecommunications carriers generally have many divisions, many central offices, thousands of thousands blocks, and millions of customers. Managing this information and reporting it can take several man-weeks for producing each NRUF Report.
Another problem that exists is that there is no standard method for forecasting exhaustion of a thousands block. Telecommunications carriers or service providers (SP) throughout the telecommunications industry currently submit requests for additional numbering resources to a pooling administrator, currently NeuStar, by completing a Months to Exhaust and Utilization Certification Worksheet. Calculations for reported values on the form are performed manually and then typed onto the form. The Months to Exhaust (MTE) form maybe prepared using a web-based graphical user interface (GUI) provided by the Pooling Administration System (PAS) (PAS User Guide for SPs, 5.1 Request for Pool Resources: Task Overview, Apr. 17, 2006, NeuStar, Inc.).
Regardless of whether or not a service provider requests additional telephone number resources on a paper worksheet, a software worksheet, or the website, the same information is required. For large rate centers, the process of compiling a carrier's current numbering resources and performing hand calculations on available and assigned numbers is one that can take several days and even weeks to complete. Many times a company may feel the need to request an additional block of numbers, but not know whether the request will be granted without performing all calculations required to complete the form. The end result is often determined that the required conditions are not met and the effort to complete the forms has gone to waste. Given the amount of time needed to determine the current and projected resources needed, service providers are often reluctant to embark on the effort to make the determination if there is a chance that the outcome of the request will be denied.